Unofficial news and tips about Google

December 4, 2009

Disable Google's Fade-in Animation

If you don't like the fade-in animation from Google's homepage and you want the old homepage, one option is to disable JavaScript. Google will no longer hide navigation elements, but you won't be able to use many web apps that require JavaScript.

You can also add the script in Opera if you follow this guide. Chrome users can install the script if they switch to the dev channel.

If you still use Internet Explorer, install IE7Pro, save the script, rename it to nogooglefade.ieuser.js and copy the script to C:\Program Files\IEPro\userscripts. Enable the script in IE7Pro's settings.

It serves no purpose, and it reduces usablitiy, making it slower to get to for example gmail, image search etc. Having google as a homepage meant two quick clicks to get there. Now it's one click, annoying waiting, and then the 2nd click.

Its plenty annoying to warrant a rant and needs an option to remove, just like the 'feature' that tries to guess what you mean to type.The problem with this one is that with a less than perfect connection the fade makes options unavailable, and is visually distracting.Please make the 'feature' removable.

I didn't think geeks (those reading this blog) still used google.com. An easier way is use the Google's Firefox homepage: http://www.google.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official Just as fast, just looks slightly different.

The Firefox homepage doesn't have a GMAIL link unless you are already signed in. FADE slows me down if I want to get to GMAIL..which is all the time. Just give me an option to turn it off under OPTIONS please. PLEASE!!!

The fade in is annoying. If I want to quickly open a google page and then click 'images' to search for images, I actually have to wait for the images link to fade in.

Yes, that one/two second does make a difference for me. Actually, I hate 'fade in' effects in all GUIs. It's one of the first things I'd disable if I used windows 7, and it's the reason I don't use compiz.

Basic rule of thumb... Don't change something that was working just fine. I always welcome practical improvements but this fade-in thing just does not qualify. Bing seems like a practical alternative which I have been using more and more. Maybe it's time for a change.

Who the hell still uses the frontpage? Every browser out there now has the ability to search from a search bar or the address bar.Every browser out there also allows you to easily setup a custom search engine too.So i ask again, why are you wasting your own time? (to the complainers)

Even better, why are you going to a website JUST to get to another part?Here is a nice idea, learn how to use Bookmarks, they are these genius little things that let you access websites without typing a single thing or accessing it from anywhere else! It really is amazing.It is trivial to add a E-mail, Apps, Services or whatever folder to bookmarks and add whatever things you frequent.

I don't like it. I don't like any fading menus. For me the emphasis needs to be on rendering menus as fast as possible. Seems to me Google are just doing it to have a giggle at Microsoft Bling err Bing.

I don't like google fade-in. Some times it fades just half way and it is not pretty. And if it is not pretty it is not serving it's purpose.Plus, sometimes i think it is slowing the autocomplete feature...

I thought google would be the last site I'd ever have to install a 3rd party script to get rid of something useless and annoying. When I'm doing 3 things at once and under time constraints, a half second delay is incredibly annoying. I guess when you're playing foosball all day this seems like a neat trick.

I agree, the fade effect annoys me to no end. There's no practical use for it; it's juat an unneeded showy effect. I'm guessing Google is using it to give people an impression of how minimalistic their search engine is by just showing the logo and a search box, which is pretty ironic since adding on effects makes it no longer the simple clean webpage it once was. I hope they remove it soon, or at least add an option to disable it...

Odd, people just love to moan don't they? Change you homepage to http://google.com/firefox and solve your problem. There are plenty of custom other google landing pages. Making your own would be easy enough.

As for tomwrong's comment, above, why should I need to change my homepage just to accommodate this annoying fade-in idea from Google. They should allow it to be disabled somehow, not force it on users.

I like Google's tools, etc, and use it for all kinds of things, but this has to be the worst Google idea ever; I'm mind-boggled that someone thought this was actually a good idea.

Clearing my cookies (which was sometimes a hassle) used to disable this annoyance, but today that trick isn't working. Please just cut this crap off of the front page. I liked Google because they kept it simple and functional - unlike other ridiculous sites. It might be a small thing to get worked up over, but I like being able to get to Gmail fast, not wait for the stupid link to appear. It might be less than a second but I shouldn't have to wait at all. It's pointless. It serves no useful purpose. And it doesn't look good.

I often remote to other computers with Remote Desktop or VNC. That annoying fade-in "feature" DOES take over 1 second to complete. Actually, any fading effect would be VERY annoying over a remote session. Google, please consider my use case (remote sessions) and give me an option to disable this "fading feature".

Is it silly to moan about something as trivial as this? Yes. But I'm still going to do it. I've seen it too many times now for it to be interesting or cool any longer and it's really starting to grate on my nerves.

hey geniuses - stop telling me it's not a big deal. It is stupid, unnecessary, and annoying - and worse, it's the type of arrogant "because we feel like it" kind of "feature" that Micro$oft is famous for.

I for one am at a Govvie site where I must use IE and cannot customize many settings, so again: stop telling me I can use Opera like you other geeks.

I thought Google was a different type of company - turns out they're not immune to swollen head syndrome. Micro$oft come again :(

I've had google has my home page for about 9 years, but I changed it yesterday. The fade slows me down from getting to image search, mail, or news. Now I have my home page set as blank and use the search bar.

The google fade in feature is horrible. First off the text of the links are Italic looking and not sharp as it once was. Cheesy looking fonts. What's the purpose of having fading effects? it serves no purpose at all. Totally useless. Why did google have to change something that wasn't broken? I now use www.startpage.com as my search engine. They don't record your IP address ever.

It's very annoying to me since I'm used to navigating to GMail and other Google services through that bar. When I navigate to Google.com and don't see the links I'm expecting to see, it triggers a frustrated and annoyed emotional response.

What makes it even more annoying to me is that it's so completely unnecessary. This feature doesn't fix anything that was broken nor does it improve anything that needed to be improved. It only makes things worse. I could learn to like it if there was any logic behind it at all.

It would have been so easy for Google to make this an optional feature for power users like myself.

To the anonymous cunt who said to utilise bookmarks or the search toolbar - get fucked. Obviously we're not concerned with just searching, or we wouldn't use those links anyway. Your attitude is appalling. It takes me 0.5 seconds longer now to click on "News" or "Gmail" and it serves no purpose. Should be able to opt out of it. I can use a quicksearch to allow searching, and so I never go to google if all I need to do is search for something (if I want to search for hats I type "g hats" into the URL bar).

That's all you need to know why there should not be some fancy fades or moving stuff. You're thinking of searching something and then BAM there's some fancy sh*t going around that grabs your attention. It doesn't help searching at all. And most often I use the links in the top of the page to search only say Groups etc so it doesn't help to hide them.

We need an option to disable this script without modifying the underlying computer. Google is all about what is within the browser and not the machine it is running on. I have to wait a extra second, or two on top of my connection speed before I can log into my iGoogle. Not everyone going to Google.com has this kind of administrative access to their machine that the post talks about. Google now takes just as long to load as every other search engine.

It is useless, inefficient (more stuff to download), and annoying.And for those who don't see anything annoying about it, try it out on a slow PC or a PC with not-so-good graphic cards. It DOES slow things down.It is also stupid that you need to install something in order to disable it! It should be the other way around! And who wants to turn of JS?

Andfor those of you that are calling people that don't like the fade "complainers" let me just say that I'm a professional UI designer and I've been using my computer since I was 4 years old. I'm not afraid of technology, and I'm not afraid of change... this feature just SUCKS.

Please (please please please) turn it off. Or at least let *me* turn it off. Until then, I'll use Yahoo! or Bing.

Google - THIS IS ANNOYING!?!? If you want to satisfy the minimalist.. give them the option to customize the page and hide the links.. Now I have to install a FireFox plug-in just to disable the fade-in effect or start using Bing.

http://www.metasearch.com/ doesn't fade - stupid google. really are showing there 'true' colours these days.. following microsoft.. hahaha they really are scrapeing the barrel.. they might still have the search advantage and free email, but they're fading from customer favour rather quickly now.

At first I didn't mind, so much. But now the fade in delay is driving me crazy. I am used to opening a new window and immediately clicking on the news, maps, etc. button since google is (or was) my homepage. The wait is extremely irritating and stupid.

Google listen to the masses - Get rid of it. It needs to go. Its a special effect on THE one webpage you don't want any, and as such it makes your blood boil every time you click the 'Homepage' icon. Really bad judgement call whoever let this change go live.

There's already quite a few (and by the end of the year, more) sites that have fixes to thwart Google's Idiocy. Be it an add-on, turning off Java for the Google page, or a .css file, there's a way around it.

Huh? This is horrible. For one thing, the "Faded" menu, when it does appear, does NOT use ClearType and it looks terrible. What is the purpose of this?

I don't want to install IE7 to fix this, SINCE I USE IE8!

Blecch. This is one of the first things that Google has done which are just stupid. I don't WANT to turn off Javascript, and I don't want to regress from IE8 to IE7. And please don't tell me to use something other than IE.

This fade in effect is the most annoying and frustrating thing Google has done so far to its search engine/homepage.

I use google.com as my homepage, I access Gmail and other google resources via this page (links at the top of the page). This allows me to get rid of a lot of bookmarks in the browser.

But now every single time I start firefox I have to move the cursor around to make everything come up. It's extremely annoying considering how much I use the Internet. Also, whatever the reason is (slow traffic, high cpu usage, etc.) javascript simply hangs sometimes and I have to wait even longer or reload the page altogether.

Google, please get rid of this useless and annoying feature. It adds nothing useful to the interface and takes away the benefits of having google as the homepage.

Seeing that effect once is more than enough. It's hard to believe something that annoying made its way to the public...

Here is a shorter link that can be used as a homepage that removes the fade in: http://www.google.com/search?q=+ My problem now is how to change the link for the Google button on the google menu. It still takes me to the regular google homepage.

I just wanted to chime in with everyone and say that if they are not going to get rid of this feature, at the very least they should provide a simple way to disable it (especially for logged in users).

Save the file as "userContent.css" (without the quotes) to your Desktop (or wherever)Navigate to your Profile (xxxxxxxxxxx.slt)Click the "+" sign in front of it.There you'll see a folder called "Chrome".Cut the .css file you saved and paste it into the Chrome folder.Close out and restart your browser.

The very fact that a page like this exists, tells you that they should remove it. The whole reason google became a success in the first place is because it was a no screwing around search engine that worked. It was fast and it was simple. This goes against that. I could understand it if they did some kind of entirely new corporate identity makeover, but this is just a stupid fade in like they hired a flash noob to jazz up their page. What the hell were they thinking? Did anyone in the world actually ever complain that the home page needed jazzing up? It's a search engine ffs.

of all the solutions they could have come up with to solve this problem [people not liking the links], they came up with this ????

it pleases no one.

the links aren't gone. they just take a second or two to appear. so the link haters will not be fully satisfied.

it introduces a delay for everyone who uses these links. these people will no longer be satisfied. their user experience has now been degraded. i use google basic as my homepage and often click into shopping or images. as do a lot of people.

google - this is a BAD solution. you're one of the most innovate web businesses out there, i'm sure you can do better than this.

Don't you all think that the new "feature" of slow fading links might have something to do with the new ever-present ad for Googles own Chrome browser.

The slow fade in makes you think that your current browser is somehow slow......then you look to your right and see an ad for Faster Chrome. Huh......maybe you'll be more likely to click on that link for Chrome if you now have been tricked to think your current browser is somehow slower.

I use my browser's built-in box for searching, but when I want to do an images search, or get to Google Docs, AdWords or Analytics, I always go to the homepage and click "My Account". Until I discovered the Greasemonkey plugin, this was adding an annoying delay to tasks I perform all day long. Sure, I could just bookmark the specific Google areas directly, but I still don't see what helpful effect they thought it would have to make all of the page's navigation temporarily invisible aside from the search button....

If you don't like the fade in feature, just set the Google Advanced Search page as your link to Google. The Google Advanced Search page doesn't have the fade in feature (yet). This is a work around for those of us that don't like the fade in "feature".

This "feature" is really slowing me down and is counter productive.As soon as i open the search url and start typing my search term, only half of what i type shows up in the search box and i have to start all over again...

This is very annoying so please give us at least an option to turn this unwanted and hated "feature" OFF.

Anonymous said on January 2, 2010 3:21 PM PDT:"As soon as i open the search url and start typing my search term, only half of what i type shows up in the search box and i have to start all over again..."

Good call, anonymous, but Anonymous and anonymous AND even anonymous you guys are way off the mark. The Google Fade is quite clearly a local security risk. You sign in to your Google account, get an urgent message from your boss, your girlfriend calls, you get distracted by something, anything, if you are human - while very quickly the fact that you have signed in to Google has now faded....time passes....more distractions.....you haven't checked your email yet, so you are still on the main Google page from signing in....you walk away, forgetting you've signed in, you glance at your screen, the top is blank, but you don't think anything of it because it just "isn't that much of a distraction or annoyance to me...". While you are off to the machine or gym or bathroom, someone else casually or otherwise comes by, moves the mouse - sees that you have signed in, perhaps mischief follows? Perhaps worse. Perhaps benevolence. But more likely a locally defined security risk.

The Fade in needs to go, we have some computers here with bad or no GPUs at all, it takes like 20 seconds for some of them to load. Google was simple, now it's all javascript. Make it an option! Come on Google!

I was just scanning through the posts. It is interesting that no-one defends the fade as a useful feature. The best anyone has to say is that either doesn't annoy them or that they don't use the PJ Google homepage anyway. From this it is apparent that the fade isn't an addition, since it has added nothing.

Time often makes the heart grow fonder, but not in this case. It still annoys me.

A good web page should never move or blink. It should be Just like a page in a paper book. That's why I use to use Google as my home page.It proved the Internet was Live and it was one of the fastest loading pages around.Google moves.Google is slow.I now have a new home page.

Launch browser, see the first tiny flicker of it instantiating on the screen like an Aphex Twin video, Google(your home page) hasn't even had time to resolve the top left pixel of the G and you type your search string and you hit enter and the results are just there. As a search engine Google was invisible to me until the fade-in.

New home page: http://www.google.com/firefox/webhp?complete=1&hl=enNot forced to ... to ... ah .. not forced to search the web on foot yet.

To the folks that think these complaints are a waste of time? Well, you're wrong! If the whole point (based upon the Google blog) was to create a "faster" more "minimalist" approach to their engine, then they have failed miserably. I use both WinXP and Win7 and can't disable this "fade in" junk fast enough! Most comments in this thread clearly find Google's bright idea rather dumb and annoying.

I want to click on the News link but it's not visible. I have to move the mouse in the general direction of the News link, STOP, wait for the News link to become visible, and THEN click it.

I can't believe Google and all of their usability resources didn't notice this? HOW CAN THIS BE AN IMPROVEMENT!!!

The people who are defending it are unbelievable in their ability to ignore the obvious: "I only use Google for searching so it doesn't bother me", "Who uses the Google home page anymore? Use the search box in your browser.", "Create bookmarks instead of using the navigation links on the Google home page", etc. WTF!!!!!! Who's passing around the Google Kool-Aid?

I think the people at google have too much time on their hands and have become too cute by half. It's absolutely useless and annoying to have to move the mouse to get the page and other discomforting to have the page load in stages.

"Animation is a great way to communicate effectively, as long as it doesn't get in the way of users' tasks or slow them down. Subtle and appropriate animation can communicate status, provide useful feedback, and help users visualize the results of their actions. Excessive or gratuitous animation can obstruct the flow of your application, decrease its performance, and annoy users."

Thanks for the solution! I've now set http://www.google.com/search?q=%12 as the default page of my browsers.

The reason I stumbled upon your site is not the Google fade (which, I admit, annoyed and surprized me greatly in the beginning; it's still annoying on many occasions), but the continuously changing graphics of the google logo on their page.

I do *not* want surprizes when embarking on a search - I do not care for Newton's birthday, barcodes or the Vancouver winter games - I want to do a search. No frills please.

The alternative web searchsites suck big time - all big and flashy, one big distraction. Google is still the best, but has gotten worse over time with the changing logos and 'cute' (who the f**k thought of that?!) fade.....

Still using google for searches, but not happy about all the changes they're continuously making to their home page. For the moment, having set http://www.google.com/search?q=%12 as default page has solved my problems with changing graphics and fades.

I *hate* change and surprizes, often even when it's an improvement, because it disturbs routine. It often takes a long time to get settled into a new routine. And sometimes the routine will never form if you keep changing your website.

Google is still the best search engine that I know of.... but it's rapidly alienating users who love it for the simplicity, without surprizes or frills. Please, keep it that way: a white blank page with search box, and perhaps a button 'search' to click. If you must, add a logo - but DON'T GO CHANGING AROUND THE LOGO EVERY TIME SOME EVENT TURNS UP!

And you do *not* want to change the look and feel of your main tool, where fractions of a second of delay count.

If I only wanted to search, I'd use my browser's search bar. Most of my visits to the front page of google.com are to click one of the links, not to use the search box, so making the links invisible was the worst possible thing Google could have done to their front page.

Thanks for the Chrome extension link. But I still hope you'll come to your senses and remove the fade effect for everyone, because I'm sure 99% of the people annoyed by the new feature (who make up perhaps 95% of all Google users) aren't going to find this blog post.

I search a lot and did not like it from the first time I saw it. Even tried to move to different search engine... so useless, slow and annoying. Saying "cmon already" has become a common thing on every homepage opening.

From a design stand point: Kind of cool; hogs up bandwidth though.From an esthetic stand point: Interesting, but slow, need it a little quicker.From a utilitarian stand point: Totaly useless. from a covert stand point: It's probably a test in analytics to see how long it takes people to migrate to what they like/want such as using this link now for a search page: http://www.google.com/search?q=%12

I can't believe the fade is still in place. It's like somebody bringing out a computer the selling point of which is that it runs SLOWER. Nobody is listening are they? Unless "they" have a good laugh at these forums over coffee break. But I see Google now find themselves slipping in the Search engine wars. Hmmm....

Remember when google was no-nonsense, just a search box, it got really popular and everyone loved it. Why on earth is this utterly useless and nnoying gimmick STILL in place with no option to disable it?

I don't know if its Opera 10.50 betas fault but if I don't wait for the animation, i usually miss the first word I type. This means this "feature" is not only a waste of resources in the form of extra java code and CPU cycles used for the alpha blending effect, but also making me less efficient.

You don't even need to see the fade-in animation if you want to type a query. The search box is already focused, so you only have to enter your query and type enter. Google's homepage is now almost empty, so there's no distracting link or boilerplate text: you only see Google's logo, a search box and two buttons.

Quote: "...you all need to seriously lighten up." - Oh really. Google, micro$$oft and yahoo have made tons of "progress" the past five years with making the user interface "prettier" and "fancier" and "more transparent" and annoying and cluttered, less efficient, wasting screen real-estate, breaking user familiarity, moving the familiar placement of UI elements for no reason, but ZERO PROGRESS in making granular easy-to-find options for the user to TURN OFF all of the annoying useless "inventions" and select a clean, CLASSIC non-animated interface if so desired. These companies instead should be spending time fixing the BASICS first. Google image search - still only max 20 results per screen the past 10 years and no improvment. Wow, what "progress". Here's a clue: every time you "invent" some kind of "new" "fancy" UI functionality, then CREATE AN OBVIOUS CONVENIENT WAY TO TURN IT OFF.

I tried to turn that annoying piece of shit off the moment I noticed it. Didn't think I was alone. Fade-ins are stupid. What the hell is the point? Am I supposed to be thrilled by the suspense of what's going to appear on my screen for the millionth time? It's not a god damn movie intro, just show me the buttons. I couldn't believe google would do that either, it's so very uncharacteristic of them. Animated webpages are annoying. There should be no MOVEMENT on a screen that's designed for functionality. I bet the person who made this decision at google was some higher-up techie with no clue about design.

sorry but that useless fade-in does get in the way for a super mega power user like myself, it slows me down, and for no reason at all. And so, a firefox plugin is THE solution? and what about the millions of other users who prefer IE? If i have to reinstall systems for ppl all day long, you can be sure that i insist that they get used to the browser that comes already installed on the system. oh yeah, now i'll be told to put FF in the windows iso, uhhh ya think? welllll...NO. no amount of plugins and settings will convince me to replace something that works just fine for me. is this googles way of screwing with microsoft? not to mention me and all the IE users on the planet? Its a conspiracy. We're all victims.

If you use IE, try IE7Pro, a plug-in that lets you install userscripts. Download the script, change the extension to .ieuser.js, copy the file to c:\program files\iepro\userscript and enable the script in IE7Pro's settings dialog.

By the way, this blog isn't owned by Google and the script wasn't developed by Google.

the fade is ignorant. People use those links all the time. Why are they making us wait to see them now? It wasnt like that before and now its just annoying. I set google as my home page for the simple fact that it appeared immediately. It doesnt do that now. I shouldnt have to install scripts to disable that. There should be an option on the home page to show/hide those links if they bother you. Im not going to disable scripts I need for other sites just to stop google from being idiotic either. Put it back the way it was. People will love you for it as they did when they first set google to their home page to begin with. Stop annoying your users.

The very discussion shows how little value this code has and any code is a potential security leak. It is, therefore, bad behavior to add the fade-in code to Google and than need recommend even more code in order to remove it.

For all you still struggling with this 'fade #$%$^*', I will post this again, try this streamlined version of the homepage. No fade, and the two google 'more' links on the side are actually quite productive when needed.

More annoying than the google fade-in are the people on here giving us a hard time. The fade is stupid and pointless. Getting to gmail, maps, etc. was much quicker before they added this feature. Yes, it normally only takes a second to load but it's an annoying second for people like me that need to get things done quickly. I don't like it for the same reason I don't hide the taskbar in Windows.

I like the iGoogle approach and this one posted by someone else:

"here's the best and EASIEST way to get rid of it (for Firefox users):

This Google fade thing still annoys me to no end using Firefox. Addons and scripts to get rid of it bloat my system and have annoying side effects. I think I read that a group of employees at Google thought it was cool and consistent with their style of keeping things simple. Well it makes me not want to use the friggen page, so I'm thinking their test group was maybe too small. Jeez. It's an unnecessary distraction that I personally am no longer willing to put up with. Thanks for the http://www.google.com/search?q=%12 starting page idea, I'll try that, but I'm not sure my frustration with having to find a way to work around that fade-in will go away. Grrrrrgle

How is it deemed acceptable that Google playing about forces a lot of users to have to fiddle about and research ways to turn this off. It really does slow you down, you can't start aiming at the link (even though you would want to try) until you can see it so please let us turn it off by giving us a new homepage like google/nofade, how difficult would that be? Even if you ignore the fade, the page takes that extra bit of time before you can start typing (when the cursor appears in the box). This in itself is a niggle. After starting to type and realising your words are not being recognised yet you have to stop, think, and start typing again.

I have been using a firefox addon "noscript" for a while. Not allowing google to run scripts puts the home page back as it was.

Without the fade you will be shocked how much faster the page loads. Its unbelievable so please give us a new url if you are not willing to disable the fade, like google/nofade

Dear Google, After five years of using you as my homepage, you have now lost me... On my pc, it takes up to 2.5 seconds to see your BS fade 'advantage'. I am tired of it. So tonight I changed to the Firefox homepage.

I dislike most of "google" after it became too big for its britches. BLing is useless and almost as bad as ya-hoe [no typos there folks]

I must use something so I use gargle Only because it has no ads [yet] Spamming soon to a home screen near your face soon... and afetr I learned that Micro-crapola Lies [ Iactually paid $ for win 95 when it was new..back in lol 96 and have yet to buy any crap from them again..and will not ever until lthe yrespond to my now Very old e-mail about fixing win 95..as this never happened, I will use thier crapola till they do, but for free.. YaHoo for torrents :P but back to topic.. screw thier fade in.. use it or change whos site you do use but make sure you send an e-mail to them and eventually they will care [not] just make sure you make them NO $$$ make sure that you NEVER buy one thing seen in a google ad..ever.. just don't do it.. and they will die like GWBUSH will..old and alone with thier fear... MwaHahahaha and one more thing FUCK you Google and MicroSoft

Alex, could you _please_ add functionality or make another extension that stops custom backgrounds from fading in?. I have a custom background and the fade slows down everything but i do not want to remove it.

It is pointless to have to fade-effect. So far, I have not yet detected the benefits of this 'great' feature, allthough I am an IT-specialist with over 25 years of experience.

In the before-the-effect-days, I opened my browser and saw google's homepage. I immediately could point my mouse to the gmail-link, or to the image search-link.

In the after-days, I still open my browser with google as the homepage. But now, I have to move the mouse first before I can see the links to gmail, maps, or image search. Waste of time and effort that is.

So, what award-winning, smart professor can explain to me where the benefit of all that is? Please don't come up with the distraction-argument. On the contrary, having things that suddenly pop-up on the screen, now that's what I call a time waisting distraction.

Please, Mr. Google, get rid of it. Stay a professional company, do what you think you have to do, and especially, don't let the others influence you. You know whom I'm talking about.

Software companies keep adding unsolicited crap to their software. The fade-in effect is a form of bloatware.

Computers are so much more powerful than they used to be, yet some things are actually slower because software is bloated on purpose. I don't need a faster computer, my computer from 2003 is and should be fine, but if software companies keep adding crap that a) only improves the look of the software, b) makes my computer work harder and c) does not improve usability or makes it worse, then of course I will need a faster processor and more memory. The old computer becomes scrap: more waste going to landfill. Instead of encouraging us to use our perfectly suitable computers, software companies force us to pollute. Makes my blood boil.

So I wipe my ass on Google's fade-in effect. I am using Firefox's Google search which is basically the same.

Here is a message for the dudes that take the street-level pictures for Google Maps. Next time you come round my place, if you zoom in close enough you might be able to see my finger.

I am a software developer and all the products we develop are very light on computer resources, and one of the ways to achieve that is to avoid eye candy. However, the software we make is intended for use by electronic engineers, i.e., professional tools.

I believe that the eye candy is there to attract the incompetent, non-savvy computer user. Things like OS X's dock and Vista/Win 7 aero effect are just toys: you get a bit of excitement the first time you play with it, but soon you will learn to ignore it. I believe though that incompetent users outnumber experienced users, and therefore large software corporations naturally favor however generates more revenue.

However, incompetent computer users are generally happy with whatever you give them as long as it works. The problem is that Apple started adding eye candy and the Microsoft and Google and everybody else had to jump on the bandwagon...

It is very naive of Google to believe that their user base will grow thanks to its visual effects. The main reason why millions use Google is that it is an effective search engine with a simple interface. Mind you, simplicity is what made it so popular in the first place.